In this section

HAWKSHEAD AND MONK CONISTON WITH SKELWITH

Houkesete, c. 1200; Hawshead, 1336.

Kunyngston, 1336.

This composite township, with a total area of
10,429 acres, has four divisions—Hawkshead, Fieldhead, Monk Coniston and Skelwith. Hawkshead,
1,972½ acres, lies on the west side of Esthwaite
Water; the greater part of it is the hill country
called Hawkshead Moor, but there is some more
level ground beside the lake and also in the vale at
the north end of the lake. In this sheltered vale, on
rising ground, the little town of Hawkshead is built,
the church being a prominent feature. The old
schoolhouse adjoins it, but is lower down. Fieldhead, 2,519½ acres, is to the north of Hawkshead;
it contains the vale extending north from Esthwaite
Water, with the hills on each side, in one place
rising to 1,056 ft. above the sea, and another
valley to the east, in which is Blelham Tarn,
discharging into Windermere. Monk Coniston,
3,109 acres, lies to the west, being bounded by
Yewdale Beck and Coniston Water, into which
it flows. It has two hill ranges, one at the head
and the other by the side of Coniston Water,
rising to 800 ft. and 922 ft. respectively. The
scenery in this part is fine; Tarn Hows, on the
border of Monk Coniston and Fieldhead, is
formed artificially from several small tarns, and
adds much to the beauty of the district. (fn. 1) Skelwith, 2,828 acres, occupies the north end of the
township, the hills there descending to the River
Brathay, which flows east to Windermere. On
this river is the waterfall called Skelwith Force.
The population in 1901 numbered 1,126. (fn. 2)

The roads are mainly determined by the
physical features. One road from the ferry at
Windermere enters the township at the south
end of Esthwaite and goes along the west side
to Hawkshead town, receiving one road from
over the hills to the west and another from
Windermere on the east. After passing through
the town it goes by Gallowbarrow (fn. 3) and divides
at Hawkshead Hall; one branch goes north by
Birkwray and Outgate to Skelwith and Ambleside, while the other turns west, passing the old
Baptist chapel and going over the hill to Waterhead and Coniston. This branch has offshoots
north past Borwick Lodge to Skelwith, and
south along the eastern shore of Coniston
Water, past Brantwood, towards Ulverston.
There is no railway line, but the roads are
busy in the summer time with the coaches
and cars carrying visitors through this part of the
Lake district.

The main, almost the only, industry is agriculture, but there are slate quarries on the western
boundary. The wool market at Hawkshead is
extinct; a bobbin factory at Thursgill stopped owing
to the bursting of a dam and was not restarted; and
nothing remains of a charcoal iron forge beside
Blelham Tarn. (fn. 4)

A heel-marked stone in Yewdale Beck had a story
of witchcraft attached to it, the depression being
known as 'the devil's foot-mark.' (fn. 5)

In the town of Hawkshead is an institute, with
library and reading-room.

The soil is light over stony subsoil. The land is
mostly in grass.

In 1894. Monk Coniston was cut off from this
township and added to Church Coniston, Skelwith
being also cut off and constituted an independent
township. The remainder is the present Hawkshead
township. (fn. 7)

Manor

After the partition made about 1160
between the monks of Furness and
William de Lancaster, by which the
former received the Hawkshead and Colton part of
the Fells, (fn. 8) they established a manor-house at HAWKSHEAD and from it ruled the district. (fn. 9) After the
Suppression this manor was retained by the Crown
until 1666, when it was granted, like the liberty of
Furness, to the Duke of Albemarle, (fn. 10) and has since
descended in the same way. The grant included
the rents from tenements held by the ancient custom
called 'tenant right,' from Blelham tarn fishery,
Elterwater Park, and the bailiwicks of Brathay,
Skelwith, Arnside, Oxenfell, Waterhead and (Monk)
Coniston, with other profits.

According to the Survey of 1649 only one court
was then held in the Fells, viz. a court leet at Hawkshead in October; the manor was reputed to be a
member of the manor of Furness, and the bailiwick
of Hawkshead, held by William Sawrey, extended
over Hill Hawkshead, Robert and Water Park. (fn. 11) A
pleading of 1584 gives information as to some of the
customs of the manor; it followed the suppression of
the smithies and related to fresh inclosures by
Christopher Sandys and others. It was stated that
tenements in the lordship had always had land called
'inground,' inclosed and kept in severalty with hedge
and ditch; also barren heath and rocky stone ground
called 'pasture ground,' much still uninclosed, for the
cattle of customary tenants. This pasture land was
bounded as to how much belonged to each township
or hamlet, and it was known how much wood and
underwood growing there each tenant ought to have
for feeding cattle, and also by bounds how much of
the woodland and pasture belonged to each tenant. (fn. 12)

The customs of the Fells, as settled in 1586, (fn. 13)
remain almost intact, and courts are regularly held. (fn. 14)
The common field extended south from the town
along the bank of Esthwaite Water. (fn. 15)

An inquiry into waste of the king's woods in
Hawkshead and High Furness was made in 1662. (fn. 16)

The occupiers of the land were formerly of the
statesman or yeoman class, customary freeholders of
the manor. (fn. 17) 'Gavelkind' tenure is mentioned at
Waterhead in 1 566, (fn. 18) but this
is probably a misdescription.
Among the more noteworthy
families arising after the suppression of the abbey was that
of Sandys of Esthwaite, (fn. 19) still
represented at Graythwaite.
They are stated to have originated near St. Bees in Cumberland. The first of them
in Hawkshead of whom anything definite is known was
William Sandys, receivergeneral of the liberties of
Furness, (fn. 20) who died about
1558; he and Margaret his wife have a tomb in the
church with their effigies upon it, as described above. (fn. 21)
Esthwaite Hall, now an uninteresting looking farmhouse, has been partly demolished and its original
plan is untraceable. (fn. 22)

Sandys. Argent a fesse dancetty between three crosslets fitchy gules.

HAWKSHEAD HALL, the old manor-house of
the Furness monks, was sold to Edward Ditchfield
and others in 1628. (fn. 23) It had from 1582 been held
on lease by a family named Nicholson, who probably
purchased from the patentees. (fn. 24) Nathaniel Nicholson
was in 1631 called upon to pay £10 for having
refused knighthood. (fn. 25) In the Civil War he took the
side of the Parliament. (fn. 26) In 1687 there was a dispute
as to suit to Hawkshead Mill between John Copley
and Beatrice his wife on one side and Edward
Braithwaite on the other. The plaintiffs stated that
Nathaniel Nicholson had left a son Daniel, whose heirs
were his daughters Beatrice above-named and Judith
wife of George Carus. (fn. 27) Judith sold her right to her
sister, whose grandson, the Rev. John Copley, sold
the estate in 1756 to Samuel Irton; his son sold it
in 1792 to William Fell of Ulverston, and his son in
1860 sold it to the late James Swainson CowperEssex, whose trustees are now in possession. (fn. 28)

The hall, (fn. 29) which is now a farm-house, stands
about half a mile to the north of the village near the
junction of the main roads from Ambleside and
Coniston close to a stream called the Hall Beck,
which flows past the house on its west and south
sides. On the north the site is sheltered by higher
ground, now a rookery. The building seems to have
been originally quadrangular, though the north side
may have been open or inclosed by a wall, but only
two detached portions—the east wing or gate-house
and part of the west wing—now remain. The three
sides of the quadrangle were standing down to about
the year 1870, when, or shortly after, the south wing,
which contained the hall and parlour, was destroyed.
The house was. with the exception of the gatehouse, probably built by the Nicholsons, though
there is evidence that they incorporated some older
work in the new building. The gate-house is of
15th-century date, but it contains a fireplace in the
upper floor with dog-tooth ornament round the
edge of the opening, which has given rise to much
speculation as to whether the structure may not
be a rebuilding of the 13th-century manor-house
erected by the monks of Furness. Whether the fireplace is in its original position, however, it is impossible to say, but the probability seems to be that it is
a fragment of an earlier building used up at a much
later date.

Plan of Hawkshead Hall

The destroyed south wing was 59 ft. 4 in. in
length by 23 ft. 6 in. in width, and was probably
originally coeval with the gate-house, though reconstructed by the Nicholsons. Sufficient evidence,
however, no longer remains for any positive statement
regarding it, as long before its destruction it had
become, together with the portion of the west wing
now remaining, almost entirely modernized. It is
described as having been a 'perfectly plain' roughcast building of two stories, with square late windows
and externally of no architectural interest. The
hall, which occupied its full width, was at the west
end and measured internally about 34 ft. by 19 ft.
with a large solar, or parlour, at the east end. The
kitchen and offices were in the west wing, the kitchen
separated from the hall by a wall 9 ft. thick containing the hall and kitchen fireplaces back to back.
This wall, which still remains as the outside wall of
the farm-house, is probably of 16th-century date, the
original arrangement of the hall, which would be
modified at that time, having most likely been that
of a screen passage at the west end with the dais at
the east. The west wing, or the portion of it now
remaining, is about 43 ft. in length by 30 ft. in
width, but was probably originally continued further
north. It has two rooms on the ground floor and
there is a massive oak staircase to the upper floor, but
externally it is modernized and of little interest
except for its cylindrical chimneys. The masonry is
of the roughest rubble formed of boulders and cobbles
with sandstone dressings.

At its north-east corner the destroyed south wing
fitted with its north-east angle against the southwest angle of the gate-house, but the two buildings
were not bonded together, and all through the gatehouse there is a want of bond in the walls, so that it
is difficult to state positively whether the gate-house
was built on to the original south wing or vice versa.
The gate-house itself is an interesting rectangular twostory structure measuring externally 47 ft. long by
26 ft. wide, with a stepped gable at each end north
and south, the east or principal front standing back
about 35 yds. from the road. The walls are of
rubble masonry with red sandstone dressings, but the
roof is covered with modern slates and the building
has been otherwise restored. The gateway is 8 ft.
wide and not quite centrally placed, (fn. 30) with a fourcentred straight-sided arch on the east side 9 ft. in
height, of dressed sandstone with a sculptured keystone, (fn. 31) over which is a lion's head, and over this
again a trefoil-headed niche which until 1834 contained a seated figure of the Virgin. On each side
of the passage is a room entered from the courtyard, (fn. 32)
both now used as stables, that on the south, which is
the smaller and has an original slit window 5 in.
wide facing east, being probably the porter's lodge.
The gate-house may have been built for holding the
manor court and is sometimes called the courthouse. The court was held in the upper story, which
consists of a single room 40 ft. long by 19 ft. 9 in.
wide, access to which is gained by an external staircase at the north end. It was originally lighted on
each side by two square-headed windows each of two
trefoiled lights and a larger pointed one at the south
end of two cinquefoiled lights with tracery in the
head. (fn. 33) This window with those on the east side
remain, but the two facing the courtyard have been
built up and a modern window inserted immediately
above the arch, which on this side has a plain segmental head. One of the windows on the east side
has, however, been entirely renewed in red sandstone
and the other has been repaired. The doorway at
the north end of the court-room is a modern one
5 ft. in width, and the roof is an open one of four
bays with plain collared principals plastered between
the spars. In the middle of the east wall is the
fireplace (fn. 34) with dog-tooth ornament already mentioned, but there is no sign of a chimney on the
outside, the modern roof being carried over the
walls with overhanging eaves. There is some evidence
that at the south end of the court room, which is
now used as a hayloft, there was a dais, and that in
the angle where the buildings joined a spiral staircase
was constructed. Part of the east wall of the destroyed
south wing still stands and the angle between it and
the gate-house is now occupied by a modern onestory building with lean-to roof erected against the
south wall of the latter.

MONK CONISTON HALL was in the 18th
century owned by a family named Ford. William
Ford had two daughters—(1) Catherine, who inherited Monk Coniston and married George Knott,
and their representatives sold to James Garth Marshall,
sometime M.P. for Leeds; (2) Agnes, who had
Ford Lodge in Grizedale, and married Henry Ainslie,
M.D. (fn. 35) Lawson Park, a herdwick in Monk Coniston,
was sold by the Crown in 1625. (fn. 36) Brathay was
called a manor in 1564. (fn. 37) Near Hawkshead Hall is
High House, formerly the homestead of the Swainsons,
but rebuilt by the grandfather of its present owner,
Mr. Henry Swainson Cowper, whose history of
the parish is frequently cited in the present
account. (fn. 38)

In 1606 a charter was obtained for a market every
Monday and fairs on St. Matthew's Day and the
Ascension. (fn. 39) After the change of style the former
was kept on 2 October; the latter was also altered,
being held on the Monday before the feast. Two
others grew up by custom, on Easter Monday and
Whit Monday. These were all well frequented in
the first half of last century, but the market has long
been discontinued, and the fairs have ceased to be
of any importance. (fn. 40) The town hall or market
hall was built in 1790 on the site of the older
Market Shambles or Butcher-house, (fn. 41) and has been
enlarged.

Pillared House, Hawkshead

The parish church has been described above. In
Skelwith is Brathay Church, Holy Trinity, built in
1836 (fn. 42); the patronage is vested in trustees.

The Particular Baptists have long had a chapel at
Hawkshead Hill (fn. 43), it was probably formed out of
an existing cottage. The cause was founded at
Torver in 1678, but Hawkshead seems to have become
the chief meeting-place soon afterwards, its endowment dating from 1707. It is mentioned by Bishop
Gastrell in 1717. The cause became extinct in
1833, but has been revived, so that there are now a
few members. The burial-ground is still used. (fn. 44)

There is a Nonconformist chapel in the town.

The Society of Friends almost at its commencement
found members at Hawkshead, for in 1659 Agnes
Rigg was buried at Colthouse in Claife in the new
Quaker ground. (fn. 45) In 1689 three meeting-houses
were registered in the parish, viz. that at Colthouse,
another at Stang End, and a third at Spooner Close. (fn. 46)
The first is the only one now in use.

9. The 'manor' is named in the ministers' accounts after the Suppression;
Lancs. and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and
Ches.), i, 96. It was in 1539 granted
to Giles Kendall and Elizabeth his wife;
L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (1), p. 607.
Probably the manor-house was meant.
Other names seem to be Hawkshead
lordship and Furness Fells manor; Ducatus
Lanc. (Rec. Com.), iii, 52, 457.

10. Cal. S. P. Dom. 1665–6, p. 290;
Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks. xxiv, 200.
The manor is named in 1699 in a fine
relating to the Clitheroe and Furness
lordships; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle.
243, m. 110. The grant of 1666 is
printed by Brydson, Two Lakeland Townships, 171.

14. Information of Mr. S. Hart Jackson,
steward of the manor. As an example it
may be stated that on the sale of the
Esthwaite Lodge estate (522 acres) in
1904 it was stated that the property was
customary freehold of the manor of
Hawkshead and as such was subject to
customary and other rents of £5 6s. 9d.
payable to the Duke of Buccleuch at
Martinmas. It was also subject to titherent charge and Easter dues payable to
Mr. T. Myles Sandys, lay impropriator.

19. H. S. Cowper, op. cit. 37. The
Esthwaite Hall estate was, according to
the pedigree in West, held by William
Sandys, father of the archbishop, and then
by his son William of Conishead; the
younger William's male issue failing, it
went in 1587 to a brother Anthony, who
died soon afterwards, leaving a sen and
heir Edwin (d. 1625) -s. Samuel, d. 1651
s. Edwin, d. 1672 -bro. Thomas, d.
1680 -s. Thomas, who married Anne the
daughter (and eventual heir) of Myles
Sandys of Graythwaite, their son Myles
becoming heir to the whole fortune of
his grandfather and removing to Graythwaite; Furness (ed. 1774), 277; Hist.
MSS. Com. Rep. x, App. iv, 353.

20. He is said to have been the grandson
of the first of the family to settle in
Furness; West, op. cit.

21. The Abbot of Furness in 1523 complained that a William Sandys of Hawkshead, husbandman, had been fishing in
Cunsey Brook; Pal. of Lanc. Writs
Prothon. file 15 Hen. VIII. To William
Sandys and John Sawrey were in 1537–8
granted three iron smithies in the Fells,
and the former also obtained farms called
Waterside Park and Lawson Park and a
fishery at Hawkshead from the possessions
of Furness Abbey; L. and P. Hen. VIII,
xiii (1), p. 587. The smithies were in
1549 disputed by William Rawlinson and
Katherine his wife; Ducatus Lanc. i, 244.
There was a dispute as to Esthwaite in
1583 between Anthony Sandys and Jane
Sandys; ibid, iii, 150. The fishery in
Esthwaite demised to Edwin Sandys was
in 1631 sold to William Collins and
others; Pat. 7 Chas. I, pt. xv.
Samuel Sandys of Hawkshead Hall
died 6 Feb. 1683–4; Hist. MSS. Com.
Rep. xii, App. vii, 46.
In the recorded pedigree the father of
the archbishop, &c., is called George
Sandys, citizen of London.

29. The building is described in some detail by Mr. H. S.
Cowper in Trans. Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. Soc. xi, 24–49,
and in Hawkshead, 158–62. Both these accounts have been
used in the description in the text.

46. Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv,
231. Stang End is in the extreme northwest corner of the township. There is
here a place called the 'Sepulchre,' the
local name for a Quaker burial-ground;
Cowper, op. cit. 12.